Murdoch Forecasts iPad may Save Newspaper Industry

While Vice President Joe Biden may describe this media mogul as a BFD, Rupert Murdoch doesn’t let his power get to his head.

“I don’t let it get to me – I don’t really believe it,” said Murdoch, at The George Washington University’s Kalb Report Tuesday night at the National Press Club.

Murdoch spoke about his path to creating a media empire, what he considers content, and of his morning reading list.
Laughs erupted from the audience when Murdoch admitted that his morning news lineup consisted of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

“But you own those two,” reminded Marvin Kalb, host of the program, which is produced by GW’s Global Media Institute, the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University, and the National Press Club.

Murdoch, who owns one of the coveted Apple iPads, describes it as “a wonderful thing” and that it “brought together all forms of media – music, books, newspapers.”

Unlike critics of the iPad and Amazon Kindle who think that these technologies will destroy the future of the newspaper, Murdoch believes that it may actually save the newspaper industry.

“If you have less newspapers and more of these, that’s ok,” said Murdoch of the iPad. “It’s more economic. It may well be the saving of the newspaper industry.”

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